Revelation and Progress

photo credit: Aaron Springston

A friend and I were recently talking about our children and how wonderful they are and how glad we are to know them. She said she didn't know how her boys had turned out so great, as she had moved them around frequently when they were young, and many of her ways wouldn't have been advocated by the so-called experts in childrearing. Yet because she was honest with her children, and she always loved them fully without judgment, they are wonderful human beings and super parents in their own right. My boys also are wonderful, but the physical circumstances of their childhood was entirely different. They attended a beautiful independent school in a small town, had a full-time mom and every-other-weekend dad, and made lifelong friends while learning about the world from their small neighborhood. There are some things my friend and I had in common raising these boys. We didn't place limitations and judgments on them. We encouraged their light to shine and made sure they knew what that meant. We weren't afraid to teach them about God, but we didn't threaten them with this knowledge. Now that they're adults, we have the pleasure of watching their light shine, fearless and loving, giving forth what they have received.

"Light: Symbol of Truth; revelation and progress." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 591:23-24

I Want to Be Happy

photo credit: Aaron Springston

I want to feel good. I want to be happy. Don't we all want these things? While feeling good and being happy may sometimes seem illusive, they are the product of the realization of our true being as Love and the expression of it. When I'm feeling unhappy, I’ve found  the way out is to do something for someone else. As more of the world is waking up to this, there are more writings concerning how we can continue to accept our enlightened state by realizing true consciousness. To share with others in this awakening is exciting! We are all doing it to some extent, aren't we? Look at the groups we are involved with in conversation: book clubs, spiritual meetings of various sorts, salons, chat rooms, virtual discussions, blogs -- the possibilities are endless! Every encounter I have with another, ever thought I have, each and every one is shared with the universe. I vow to choose wisely, even when I think I’m talking to myself!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"It is essential to understand, instead of believe, what relates most nearly to the happiness of being. To seek Truth through belief in a human doctrine is not to understand the infinite." Science & Health Page 285:32-4

Our Essence as Love

photo credit: Richard Quick

What is love? As a personal value, love changes and shifts. Friendships end over disagreements, marriages fall apart, societies struggle with how to remain cohesive while accepting those who think differently. In reality, Love is unchanging. This Love changes our material expectations and perceived shortcomings, when we allow it. There was a time when two people I care for did not get along with each other. Seeing them both as expressions of Love helped them to see themselves this way, too. Seeing myself as complete allows a shift to occur in the way I treat others — and myself. All problems, large and small, are symptoms of a basic misconception that we are fallen humans separated from Love. The understanding that we are Love, wholly and purely, starts a domino-effect process which inevitably includes everyone in this shift of thought, away from the unreal belief in what we think we are to the pure comprehension of  our essence as Love.

Mary Baker Eddy quote: “From Love and from the light and harmony which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections of good can come.”

Science & Health Page 280:4-7

Go Where the Music Takes You

photo credit: Richard Quick

Music is an aid which opens our thought to things we may have forgotten or, perhaps, never have known. I love to sit with an all-encompassing symphony orchestra, opening my mind to only the music, until at some point I feel there is nothing else in the world. I recall Wayne Dyer talking about muscle testing using different items. An organic banana allowed full strength in his son, whereas holding a CD of raucous music left him much weakened. Each of us enjoys different kinds of music, and there are many levels of this enjoyment. Something we would enjoy with friends at a party may not compare to the quiet strains of Bach, which take us deeper within ourselves prior to meditation or writing. Find the music which opens you to hearing the messages Life, Truth, and Love are offering you. Surround yourself with this river of salvation and see where it takes you!

“Mozart experienced more than he expressed. The rapture of his grandest symphonies was never heard. He was a musician beyond what the world knew.This was even more strikingly true of Beethoven, who was so long hopelessly deaf. Mental melodies and strains of sweetest music supersede conscious sound. Music is the rhythm of head and heart. Mortal mind is the harp of many strings, discoursing either discord or harmony according as the hand, which sweeps over it, is human or divine.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 213:19-29

Just Write

Paulo Coelho is one of my favorite authors. In his book, "Aleph”, and others, he takes us on a spiritual journey which shows that we are indeed not alone in either our fears or our realizations of Truth. This novel is described as his most personal, and from the little I know of Mr. Coelho's life, our main character seems to have many common characteristics with his creator. When he writes of spiritual progress feeling stagnant, I ache for him. These  sentences ask for remembrance: "It isn't what you did in the past that will affect the present. It's what you do in the present that will redeem the past and thereby change the future." What a vibrant, hopeful statement! And now is the time. What you do right now is the pivotal point in your life. Let go of any and all grievances of any kind. Notice your thoughts as they peek out at you during the day. Are they reinforcing old, often-painful beliefs, or are they leading you out of them?  I find novels such as those written by Mr. Coelho to be delightful. I urge each of you to write! Write in blogs, write letters to the editor, keep a journal -- anything and everything which solidifies our yearning to know Oneness needs to be written. It deserves a voice which contains no fear, no shame, only honesty.

“It requires courage to utter truth; for the higher Truth lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its in‐articulate sound is forever silenced in oblivion.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 278:1-11

Harmony - June 7, 2018

Conflict resolution. Conflict transformation. How much time and energy do we spend in attempting to negate conflict between others and/or within ourselves? We can make lists of the merits of our choices, we can role play and put ourselves in others' places in a situation, we can enlist therapists to help us out. There are lots of ways to search for the door out of conflict. I have found the only true way to leave it behind is to realize that such a thing does not exist anywhere other than in my thought. Anyone who has ever tried to calm fighting siblings knows the process can be daunting no matter how you approach it! I'll always remember a time when my boys were around 8 and 10 years of age. Their disagreements had advanced to the point where I saw no way out other than to give one of them away! One day, during a particularly intense bout, I gave up and sat down in my bedroom to have a good cry. Next to my chair was a stack of Christian Science Sentinels, the weekly publication which gives us practical metaphysical writings. I reached down and pulled one from the middle of the stack and opened it up to an article about brothers fighting! I don't remember anything about the content, other than it was just what I needed for the situation. And I remember the solution had to do with having no strong opinions. By letting go of my I'm-right-you're-wrong attitude, I was able to lead them to the same way of thought, by living it, not just telling them what they should do. Living Love creates bridges which bring us together in peace. Trust that your function and your happiness are your heritage, and don't be afraid to open up and see what unexpected ways it will be manifested.

“God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 106:7-10

Love Is The Common Denominator

I love silly situation comedies, such as Modern Family.  A favorite episode is one where Claire has lunch with an old college friend. Her friend has a very successful career and an exciting life as a single woman. Claire is jealous and wants to show off her three kids and husband of seventeen years, so she takes her friend home to meet them. Her handsome husband is inexplicably wearing a huge fake mustache and is trapped in a port-a-potty placed there by the water department while they work on the lines. Her oldest daughter is having a loud altercation with her boyfriend. Her other daughter and her son have been recycling in the neighborhood and have the kitchen filled with semi-empty bottles of alcohol. The son is in his underwear because he spilled booze all over himself, while the daughter is trying to catch a rat which came in with the boxes. So much for self-importance, huh? Most of us probably have a silly story about a situation which backfired when we've wanted to show off in some way. If we stop and think about these feelings and what's behind them, it's easy to see how this desire to be "special", to be better than someone else, is at the core of every disagreement and conflict in the world.  With the understanding that we are all the reflection of Love each demonstrating our individuality within this realm of unity, it becomes possible to release false images of self-importance and relax into the perfection of this experience we know as life. By doing so, we are the light of the world! Seeing ourself in others and others in ourself, we fulfill our function of forgiveness. We do this by giving up ideas and beliefs which foster the misconception that we are all different, and instead embrace Love as our common denominator.

"Self-forgetfulness, purity, and affection are constant prayers." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 15:26-27